Transcript: Our First Few Weeks

Governor Deval L. Patrick

This is Deval Patrick, Governor of Massachusetts. This is the first of a weekly internet Podcast that I intend to record as a way of talking directly with you about our work in state government on your behalf.

These first few weeks have been active ones. I made the difficult decision in the early hours of this administration to reverse a slate of funding cuts made by the outgoing governor. These were tough decisions and costly ones in some respects, but they also honor the commitments that the legislature and the outgoing government had made to people in need, people who needed food and shelter, valuable programs.

I made that decision in close consultation with our budget experts because I believe we will ultimately have the revenues necessary to meet those obligations. And I also warned our team and the public that we may not, given tough revenue forecasts, keep those commitments on a recurring basis. But for this fiscal year I believe that was the right thing to do.

We also launched our Commonwealth Corp, a new service program which will challenge 250 Massachusetts citizens in the first year to give their time, a year of service, full or part time, to help rebuild and revitalize our statewide community. Graduates from high school and college, people in mid-career, retirees, who will have a more formal way of re-engaging in community service.

The Lt. Governor and I met with local officials from the Massachusetts Municipal Association and began the critical work of rebuilding working relationships with leaders of cities and towns, people who are on the front line of delivering services to our people.

We joined the regional greenhouse gas initiative, to promote energy conservation and rate reduction for consumers, as well as job growth in an emerging industry around clean technology and clean energy, something I think is a big opening   for us here in Massachusetts.

And I sent my first bill to the legislature. Working with Senator Fred Berry of Peabody and Representative Ted Speliotis of Danvers we filed a bill to provide immediate property tax relief to families whose homes were damaged or destroyed in the Danvers chemical plant explosion in November.

We also formed a development cabinet to coordinate the executive departments that are key to stimulating economic growth throughout the commonwealth because if we don’t make a more successful economic environment, with broader opportunities for companies, for wealth creation and for you, then everything else we want to do is up for grabs.

Now, it has been an active first few weeks but it has not been without its bumps. There have been insignificant ones, like when I filled the executive suite with smoke when I first tried to light the fireplace in the governor’s office. And more significant ones like dealing with the initial bids from healthcare providers in trying to implement the new health reform law. But we are committed to getting it all right. We’ve gone back to the drawing board with those bidders to get those premiums lower, so that they are more affordable to people. Because we don’t want hypothetical health care reform we want real and meaningful and lasting health care reform and its going to take work.

There are other challenges we’re facing. We’re in the midst of the budget season right now, developing a budget for the next fiscal year which begins July 1. The revenue picture is not as robust as we hoped it would be and there are other challenges we face. But I believe we can face those challenges, if we stick together, and we’re candid with you about the challenges we face, and open to you in taking your best ideas and your best advice on how to meet those challenges. We’re in this for the long run, you and me, we are about building lasting and meaningful change and improvement in all of our communities all across this commonwealth, and that’ll take time.

Now I could respond like some governors have, with sound-bytes and gimmicks and photo-ops. I could tell you everything is fine, and it’s going to be smooth sailing no matter what. But I came here promising you that we would face our challenges squarely, that we would bring the most meaningful reforms to the table, and that we would govern with our long term interests in mind, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.

If you’d like to send us your comments or feedback on this podcast or anything else, please visit the website, which is www.mass.gov/governor and click on ‘send us your ideas’. Those are the words. And we’ll be paying attention. Thanks for listening. Take care.